Metempsychosis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCBBDEDDFCFFGHGGGI| SUDDENLY to become John Benbow walking down William Street | A |
| With a tin trunk and a five pound note looking for a place to eat | A |
| And a peajacket the colour of a shark's behind | B |
| That a Jew might buy in the morning | C |
| To fry potatoes God save us if you feel inclined | B |
| Or to kiss the landlady's daughter and no one mind | B |
| In a peel papered bedroom with a whistling jet | D |
| And a picture of the Holy Virgin | E |
| Wake in a shaggy bale of blankets with a fished up cigarette | D |
| Picking over the 'Turfbird's Tattle' for a Saturday morning bet | D |
| With a bottle in the wardrobe easy to reach | F |
| And a blast of onions from the landing | C |
| Tattooed with foreign ladies' tokens a heart and dagger each | F |
| In places that make the delicate female inquirer screech | F |
| And over a chest smoky with gunpowder blue | G |
| Behold a mermaid piping through a coach horn | H |
| Banjo playing firing off guns and other momentous things to do | G |
| Such as blowing through peashooters at hawkers to improve the view | G |
| Suddenly paid off and forgotten in Woolloomooloo | G |
| Suddenly to become John Benbow | I |
Kenneth Slessor
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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